Greg and I went on a 10 day mission trip to Belize at the beginning of August. We had a great experience. It was not one that Greg or I would have chosen for ourselves but it was the one God chose for us. It was an evangelical trip, meaning no construction work, or medical, or kids stuff... just plain ole telling people about Jesus. We stayed in the biggest city (Belize City). There were 97 people from across the US who went so we were spread out through the country in different cities. We actually had a nice hotel with a/c, which is a must down there in the summer heat! Our room was about the only place that had a/c.
Outside of our room was this great big fan palm tree... we had never seen one like it before.
The pool was right outside of our door... it looks so beautiful and refreshing after being in the heat all day... however it felt like bathwater and was not very refreshing, except when the sun went down and the wind picked up then it was cool.
This is the church we worked with all week, Queen Street Baptist Church. Every time we went to church, we opened the windows, then when we left we closed them... we did that about 3 times a day. It seems like the majority of streets in the city were under construction.
We had church services Sunday, Monday, Tues, Wed, and Friday night the week we were there. The church had a different ministry lead the services during the week. One night it was the adult choir, another was the women's ministry, then youth ministry and men's ministry... the youth and men's night both put on little skits. Below is blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46).
Belize has been hit by many hurricanes throughout the years. Here is one of the evidences of a few hurricanes... on the shore by the ocean are two boats, one is old and torn up you see right through it... the other has not been there as long.
This is one of the women Greg and I met and shared Christ with. She also has a son with spinal bifida and asked us to pray for him. We invited them to come to church and they did!!! The little boy had the biggest smile on his face the whole time he was there.
We ended up having some down time while we were there... partly because we did not have to travel out of the city to different locations and the way the church scheduled us to be there... so we took advantage of our down time by being tourist. We went on a zip-line and the rode a tube through some caves. There are no pics of that because my camera was not water proof, but I highly recommend seeing caves this way. There is no ducking, no walking, just a little paddling with your hands if you need to move faster.
This is our group that went with us. We are all lined up ready to zip-line across the jungle!
Here I come....
next is Greg.
We also went to a Mayan ruin and saw the biggest grasshopper we have ever seen... Greg is holding it...and he has big hands!
This is part of the ruins. It is the temple where they sacrificed people to their god.
We had a great time and over 1200 people came to know Christ during our trip. The kids missed us and the grandparents missed us more! We are very thankful we have parents near by who are willing to take the kids for 10 DAYS... I am sure it will be awhile before they volunteer for that again... maybe next year:)
